A Makeup Brush No-No (Are You Guilty Of Doing This?)

Our conversation about hairbrush grodiness last week brought to mind another brush-maintenance tip you might not be aware of. In fact, when I recently heard this bit of wisdom from a makeup artist, I was like holy crap--no wonder even the nicest makeup brushes always end up annoyingly shedding bristles all over my face!

Our conversation about hairbrush grodiness last week brought to mind another brush-maintenance tip you might not be aware of. In fact, when I recently heard this bit of wisdom from a makeup artist, I was like holy crap--no wonder even the nicest makeup brushes always end up annoyingly shedding bristles all over my face!

Never dry your brushes right-side up!

Here's what I was doing wrong: After washing my makeup brushes--which I do less often than I should, of course--I would always tap them gently on a towel, reshape the bristles and then let them air-dry standing up in a glass. Turns out this is bad, bad, bad! In fact, drying a brush upright is just about the worst thing you can do to it, short of setting it on fire. What happens is that any residual water in the bristles trickles down into the ferrule, that metal part at the base of the bristles. And as water sits in the ferrule, it loosens the glue that holds bristles in place. Which leads to shedding. Even the most well-made brush will fall apart if washed this way enough times.

The correct way to dry brushes: Lay a towel flat and roll one end inward, then lay your brushes on the towel with the bottoms of the handles up on top of the rolled part, so the brush heads are titled at a slightly downward angle. This will ensure all water trickles into the towel, not the ferrule.

Are you guilty of drying your makeup brushes upright? How often do you wash yours, and do you find they shed a lot? The ideal is once weekly for face brushes like blush/powder ones, and after every use for eyeliner and lip brushes. How many brushes do you use in your daily routine? If you're in the market for some new ones, check out the under-$10 set Beth loves.